Looking to change up your programming routine? You're in luck. Here are three ways to do it while subverting the status quo...
Sets: Russian Descending Pyramid
I think it’s fair to say that finishers, rest-pause, circuits, and other methods of extending sets or compounding fatigue are a major fad in fitness today. Going against this grain is what Stuart McGill calls the “Russian descending pyramid.”
Prehab exercises generally do a couple of different things. First of all, they train a corrective movement pattern, and/or they train lagging supportive muscle groups. Fatigue from an extended set or cumulative sets can cancel out these two benefits. Imagine that you’re doing terminal knee extensions on a low box or step. An ideal rep places the emphasis on the working leg by keeping the body still and preventing the non-working leg from bouncing off the floor. As fatigue sets in, though, that focus on the working knee is undercut—you might begin to sway or rock, your depth might decrease, or you may slump into your reps to get a rebound effect. So, you’ve gone from grooving a good movement pattern to grooving a bad one.
On the other hand, if you purposefully lower the reps over the course of your sets and terminate every set before the onset of fatigue, you’ll perform nothing but proper repetitions. The right muscles get hit and the motor pattern is healthy and advantageous. You can try this yourself the next time you do rotator cuff work or isometric ab exercises like planks or bird dogs. Terminate the first set before your form suffers, rest as needed, and then perform the second set using fewer reps or a shorter duration. Rinse, repeat, and reap the benefits of smart training.
Sessions: Inverted Programming
Inverted programming looks a bit like the world’s longest pre-fatigue plan. It’s more complicated than that, though. Pre-fatiguing is a way of targeting a specific muscle group by hitting it with a simple, generally single-joint, exercise before advancing to a more complicated/compound lift. The classic example is working the pec deck before doing bench or dumbbell presses.
Inverted programming expands this concept by designing an entire workout where single-joint and stabilizer movements build up to a primary lift. Ian King’s work introduced me to the technique. Many of his extended programs start with a four-week block of inverted programming. For example, one of his quad-dominant days is sequenced like this:
- Single-Leg Curls/Extensions
- Single-Leg Terminal Knee Extensions
- Bulgarian Squats
- Ski Squats
- Single-Leg Machine Hack Squats
- Single-Leg Leg Press
- High-Bar Squat
All of the lifts feature some mix of slow eccentrics/concentrics, iso-holds, fractional reps, and other techniques to activate the targeted muscles (though no sets are performed to exhaustion.) The result is that by the time you reach the squat, your quads are the limiting factor and the only thing you’re thinking about.
A Westside-style trainee could easily adopt inverted programming as a combination weak-point/deload cycle. For example, if upper-back mass and tightness is holding back a particular lift, then you could flip your script to look something like this:
- Face pulls (with external rotation)
- Pull-ups/Pull-downs
- Rows
- ME Lift
The ME lift can be tailored to assist in the goal by either wrapping a mini band around the wrists for the bench press or by using an SS Yoke Bar for a squat or good morning (or in accompaniment with a deadlift.) An even simpler deload is to reverse a normal ME or DE day. The pre-fatigue will reduce the weight on your primary lift, an effect that can be emphasized by working to a relatively easy set (such as a triple you could’ve gotten for five reps or a dynamic set that’s had its triples reduced to singles).
Training Cycles: Increasing Exercise Complexity
Getting worn down by the big three or your Oly routine? Looking to make up some lost muscle? A longer-term plan based on moving from simple exercises to more complex ones might help your cause.
Yes, this could turn into a muscle magazine’s cookie cutter “beginner’s” program...but smartly handled, it can be a training aid. Imagine that you’re trying to bring your conventional deadlift up. You’ve just finished a grueling specialization cycle that had you pulling two days a week, followed by shrugs, rows, and weighted ab work. You’ve also hammered a new PR, but you might just be too beat-up to maintain the strength you’ve gained. Odds are you’re neurally fried, the nerves around your spine have become overly sensitized, and you’ve probably tweaked an ab, glute, or trap.
On the other hand, you’re primed for a simple bodybuilding-style training block. By focusing on machines and single-joint exercises in higher rep ranges, you can hit your muscles with an almost novel training experience. Rather than accumulating CNS fatigue, you’ll be challenged by metabolic and local stressors. The small muscle groups, tendons, and ligaments you tortured will get a break thanks to the inherent stability in most machine lifts.
But what about keeping your gains? The trick here is translating your deadlift technique into the world of cams and pulleys. If you’re more of a driver who finishes with a little hip pop, leg presses and flat-back pull-throughs might be your ticket. Follow those up with some chest-supported machine rows and planks to give your lower back a break. Three or four weeks could be enough to do the trick. If you’re worried about losing the deadlift groove, then occasional technique lifts with light loads are acceptable, but don’t overdo it.